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Elizabeth Spingola, a 2014 candidate for graduation in engineering education from Butler, Pa., was honored with the 2014 Catherine Freed Leadership Award at Ohio Northern University on May 1. The award, named for former University First Lady Catherine Freed, recognizes the outstanding female leader on campus.

An honor student, Spingola will be the first individual in the nation to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in engineering education. She is a member of Phi Sigma Rho and the ONU Joint Engineering Council, and she is one of the founding members of the ONU chapter of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).

She is active in the numerous community and service organizations. She served on the Relay for Life committee as well as the Northern Engineering Without Borders as a member and officer. She also volunteered for every outreach activity to introduce engineering to K-12 students. Spingola was a volunteer serving at STEM in the Park (Bowling Green) and STEM Days (Piqua high school) for the past two years, since the programs have existed.

Spingola also served as project manager for the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) project to build a scale-model replica of the Mars rover Curiosity for the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio. She also served on the team helping to develop the TEAMS competition for the Technology Student Association, serving as a reviewer for regional- and national-level conference papers. She has published at least seven conference papers and presented at national-level conferences such as Frontiers in Education and the ASEE annual conference.

Spingola will enter a Ph.D. program in engineering education at Virginia Tech following her graduation from ONU.